Tanners announce rawhide prices

Tanners yesterday announced the purchase rates for rawhides during Eid-ul-Azha in a bid to prevent the traders from gaining a windfall at their expense.
Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leathergoods and Footwear Exporters' Association, Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) and Bangladesh Hide and Skin Merchants Association (BHSMA) jointly announced that they would buy per square feet of salted cowhide for Tk 85-95 in Dhaka and Tk 75-80 elsewhere, goatskin for Tk 50-55 and buffalo skin for Tk 40-45.
"We will buy hides only at these prices at the factory level. We will not pay any higher than the declared rates," said Belal Hossain, chairman of the exporters' association.
But the prices at which the traders would procure the rawhides from households are most likely to be lower than the rates quoted by the tanneries.
He said traders, including the seasonal ones, last year bought hides from people on the cheap and sold at higher prices to tanneries.
"It created an untoward situation and we had to face the blame," he said, adding that such a situation occurred because of non-declaration of any price by the industry ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, a religious festival which enables the tanneries to land half of their annual supply of rawhides.
The prices were fixed taking into account the leather prices on the international market and the number of orders received during various leather-related fairs this year.
"The biggest buyers of Bangladesh's leather are Italy and China, but prices are declining there in line with the international market. Plus, the international leather fairs this year did not bring in our expected level of orders.”
“We do not know where the market will be in the next six months. So we have declared an average price considering various factors,” said Ali Hossain, chairman of BHSMA.
At present, the price of cowhide in Dhaka is Tk 90-95 per sft, he said.
The previous Eid fetched the tanneries 55 lakh pieces of rawhide, but this time they are expecting 65 lakh pieces, said Md Shaheen Ahamed, chairman of BTA.
"We expect more animals to be slaughtered this Eid because it is an election year.”
The leather and leather goods industry earned over half a billion in exports in fiscal 2012-13, according to Export Promotion Bureau.